Planetarium and Digital Dome

Iziko’s enriching and enabling education programmes include Planetarium edu-tainment for diverse school groups and audiences.

The programmes endeavour to develop the full potential of learners. They include lessons, workshops, teacher enrichment programmes and educational projects aimed at adding value to classroom practice, as well as special needs activities and educational resources.

See below for a series of Planetarium and Digital Dome events and resources!

Sky Map

The centre of the map is the overhead point, the edge is the horizon. To use the map, hold it up in front of you and rotate it to match the direction you are looking (e.g. hold it upside down when you are looking south). Do not lay it flat on a table or the points of the compass will be the wrong way round.

Sky Map December 2024

As the year draws to an end, keep an eye out for the impressive ‘open cluster’ of stars; the Pleiades (isiLimela) in the north-east just below Aries (ram). Although only a few of the cluster’s stars are visible to the naked eye, binoculars reveal hundreds more, all formed from the same giant molecular cloud with roughly the same age.

The summer constellations Taurus (bull) and Orion (hunter) return to our evening skies, followed closely by the Milky Way as it stretches across our eastern horizon. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, lies within Canis Major (big dog) in the east. The second brightest star, Canopus, is in the south-east in Carina (ship’s keel). Since Sirius rises later than Canopus, in |Xam Bushman starlore, Sirius was thought of as ‘the grandmother of Canopus’, trailing behind the more agile Canopus.

The waxing crescent moon reappears in the early evening at the start of the month, with New Moon on 1 (and 31) December, the Full Moon (or ‘Springbok’ Moon) on 15 December, and Summer Solstice (longest day) on 21 December. In the early evening, try to identify three naked eye planets: Venus is the very bright object towards the west (initially in Sagittarius, archer, and then later in Capricornus, sea goat); Saturn lies almost directly above you in Aquarius (water bearer); and Jupiter can be found in Taurus low towards the north-eastern horizon.

Download the December Sky Map HERE.